What do I do if my flight is delayed or cancelled?

When a flight wobbles, your airline is your first and best contact, not the internet rumour mill at the gate. Open the airline app, get in the rebooking queue at the desk, and — if the line is long — call the airline's phone line simultaneously; whichever reaches a human first wins. For cancellations and long delays, the airline is obliged to rebook you, and depending on the route and carrier may owe you meals, accommodation or compensation, so be polite but persistent.

Document everything from the first moment. Photograph the departure board showing the delay or cancellation, keep your boarding pass and booking reference, and save any emails or texts the airline sends. This paperwork is what powers both an airline compensation claim and a travel insurance claim for missed connections or extra nights — and travel insurance with trip-disruption cover is genuinely worth it for exactly this.

If the disruption strands you overnight, the practical problem becomes a bed and a plan, and that is where being looked after matters. Your riad or hotel can almost always extend your stay, and if you have onward transfers, the moment you tell us we rearrange the driver, push back the desert pickup, or hold your next accommodation so nothing cascades into a second problem. A delayed flight should cost you a few hours, not your whole next day.

The quiet professional's trick is to never schedule a tight connection for your international flight home. We build itineraries so guests spend their final night in or near the departure city — Casablanca or Marrakech — with a comfortable buffer. That single buffer day absorbs almost any delay, turns a missed-flight panic into a relaxed extra evening, and is the cheapest insurance you can buy: time.